One thing that has often been wondered when it comes to armored vehicles is what happened to the Type 5 Chi-Ri that was captured by US forces at the end of WWII. Wikipedia claims that it was earmarked for testing at Aberdeen Proving Grounds but its fate after being captured is unknown, while tanks-encyclopedia.com claims it was lost at sea or scrapped in place. However, neither of these are true. Recently an April 10th 1952 video has surfaced again on YouTube thanks to the efforts of Eun Ae Sun and myself (I found the online archive that held the video), detailing a number of vehicles being scrapped at Aberdeen for a steel drive as well as showing footage of scrapping taking place in Japan. The Aberdeen footage is quite striking given the vehicles shown to be scrapped:

Vehicles shown include the Chi-Nu, Chi-To, Chi-Ri, Ho-Ha APC, Ho-K armored lumberjack vehicle, a Ke-To light tank, and both a Panther and JagdPanther. So the Chi-Ri did in fact make it to Aberdeen where it was sadly scrapped rather than being preserved, although at least we finally know what happened to it.

This is basically Wargaming’s synopsis of what is going on in the test a decent one stop shop for most things. Most of this has been covered in greater detail in RSR like HD screen shots and Test notes , for other stuff just scroll back through history.

Update 9.20: Common Test

Update 9.20 is heading full speed towards Common Test today. If you’ve been waiting to battle it out in the new 30v30 mode, Chinese TDs or rebalanced vehicles, this is your chance to get a first hands-on chance with them. Once you have some time to play a few games, hop into the 9.20 forum thread to share your thoughts. It’ll help us fine-tune the update.

Ranked Battles

Ranked Battles just recently finished its Beta Season, raising mixed feelings across the global World of Tanks community. We’ve dug into all your feedback and would like to touch upon changes that we hope will improve your experience.

Another slow day of relatively low-priority news, but to hell with it, at least something is going on. WarGaming has officially announced a partnership with the British based studio, Splash Damage.

“We are known for creating a deep relationship between the two most important platforms, games and players,” said Paul Wedgwood, Splash Damage CEO . ” As players, Viktor and I share the same passion about community – listen to them and their needs are our top priority when creating games. Wargamingu gaming universe gives us the opportunity to be creative in creating the vast and loyal community. “Continue reading →